Bengal STF nabs 3rd local associate of arrested Pakistani national with suspected ISI links
Kolkata: The West Bengal Police on Wednesday informed that the Special Task Force (STF) of the state police has arrested the third local associate of the Pakistani national, Wahab Alam, having links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), who was arrested earlier this month from Habra in North 24 Parganas district.
The person arrested by the STF sleuths has been identified as Zafar Sams alias Sunny. An original resident of Topsia in East Kolkata, Sunny had been absconding since the arrest of Alam.
Finally, he was arrested in Rishra in Hooghly district. However, the state police have not disclosed the time of his arrest and other relevant details.
The STF officials are currently interrogating Sunny to get details of his involvement in Alam’s activities. “We doubt Sunny played a role in strengthening the sleeper cell or network that Alam was forming to smuggle secret information from India to ISI,” said a state police officer.
Two days ago, Imran Hosain, a second associate of Alam, was arrested by STF sleuths from his residence in Topsia.
Before that, the state STF sleuths arrested Mohammad Izaz, Alam’s closest associate, also from his residence in the same locality of Topsia.
It is alleged that Alam, after illegally entering West Bengal via Nepal in 2012, used to stay at Izaz’s residence and the latter was instrumental in arranging Indian identity documents for the Pakistani national.
The STF sleuths got information about Sunny after integrating Alam, Izaz and Imran, first separately and then together.
Earlier on August 14 night, the STF sleuths arrested three other suspected Pakistani spies, all three being Indian citizens, from the Sahebganj area of the India-Bangladesh border district of Cooch Behar.
The names of the arrested are Rashidul Haque, Nur Nasiruddin Ali and Shafiqul Islam.
Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started collecting information about Wahab Alam. The move came after the preliminary investigation by the STF revealed Alam’s alleged links with Pakistan’s spy agency, ISI. The NIA has contacted the Bengal STF to obtain details of the investigation and the information gathered so far.
The NIA will interrogate Alam and Izaz, and if necessary, Hosaain and the other three arrested from Cooch Behar.